Friday, February 14, 2014

Hindus, Wendy Doniger and our fraudulent Left-liberals

Our
fraudulent Left-liberals, who dominate the commentariat and academic
institutions, poisoning impressionable minds, are out in full force, doing what
they do best: Maligning Hindus by propagating falsehood. They have seized upon
Penguin Books India’s decision to withdraw and pulp a book, ‘The Hindus: An
Alternative History’, authored by Wendy Doniger who is on the faculty of the
Divinity School at Chicago University, to accuse “Hindu nationalists”, “fringe
fundamentalists”, “Hindutvawadis” of enforcing ‘censorship’. This fiction is
being repeated, again and again, in keeping with Goebbels’s dictum of repeating
a lie till in the popular perception it begins to appear as the truth.

Here are
the facts. Wendy Doniger’s book was published in India by Penguin five years
ago. It met with a hostile reception and its contents were contested by several
writers well-versed with Hindu texts and Sanskrit. Even the most casual reading
of the book would show that the ‘alternative history’ that Wendy Doniger
peddles is so much bunk and no more. For
all her scholarship, her interpretation of text and tradition, her
understanding of the finer nuances of Sanskrit, come across as amazing shallow
in this book.

Critics
of ‘The Hindus: An Alternative History’ have argued, and not without reason,
that the book was crafted to intentionally pour scorn on Hinduism; to titillate
those who feel it is obligatory, either for reasons of ideology or faith if not
both, to denigrate Hinduism; to use the papier mâché mask of scholarship to
mock at Hindus for worshipping gods and goddesses who are portrayed as high on
Viagra.

Hinduism
does not abnegate the recreational pleasures of sexual intercourse – an entire
chapter, The Anodyne, in Nirad C Chaudhuri’s celebrated treatise, ‘The
Continent of Circe’, elaborates this point. Nirad babu drew upon a vast body of
Sanskrit text, both religious and secular. But whereas it is a pleasure to read
Nirad babu’s exposition, and a joy to read the texts he refers to even in
translation, crudity and misinterpretation makes Wendy Doniger’s “alternative
history” odious.

It could
be entirely coincidental, but what Wendy Doniger has to say about Hindus and
Hinduism bears remarkable similarity with the salacious, slanderous contents of
lesser pamphlets used by pastors sponsored by foreign evangelists who run a
multi-billion-dollar trans-national business of harvesting souls. For evidence,
compare Wendy Doniger’s slickly produced ‘The Hindus’ with Pastor MG Matthew’s
shabbily printed ‘Haqeeqat’. I would desist from quoting either of the authors
because that would amount to giving undue publicity to scurrilous comments
aimed at demeaning Hindus and defaming their faith. The similarity does not necessarily suggest a
larger conspiracy, not the least because Wendy Doniger, I am told, is not a
Bible-thumping Christian but a secular Jew.

A year after
the book’s publication in India, Dinanath Batra, representing an organisation
called Shiksha Bachao Andolan, filed a case against Penguin Books India and
Wendy Doniger, demanding that the book be withdrawn from circulation. The
petition extensively cited flaws in the book and explained why these were
unacceptable. In brief, someone offended by the book exercised his right to
seek legal remedy. On February 4, Penguin Books India, instead of contesting
the petition and fighting it out in the courts of law to uphold the author’s
right to free speech, decided to cut its losses and pulp the book.

It would
be in order to mention that Penguin Books India has in the past elected to dump
another author without even so much as a murmur of protest. Khushwant Singh,
who was an adviser to Penguin Books India those days, was the first to propose
that Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ should be dropped and went on to
urge Rajiv Gandhi that it should be banned. Rajiv Gandhi did ban ‘The Satanic
Verses’, making India the first country to proscribe it. Penguin Books India
never contested that decision. Instead, it meekly recalled and pulped all
unsold copies.

Some 30
years ago Sunanda K Datta-Ray’s ‘Smash & Grab: The Annexation of Sikkim’,
perhaps the only book on one of the most important chapters of post-1947
history, was withdrawn and pulped by Vikas Publishing, the biggest publisher of
the times. Vikas did so to settle a case filed by India’s last representative
to Gangtok who had been uncharitably portrayed in ‘Smash & Grab’.
Publishers in India are not known to fight legal battles to a bitter finish.

If our
Left-liberals are truly upset, they should direct their ire at Penguin Books India
for letting down Wendy Doniger and her book. They won’t do that because it
would mean castigating ‘people like us’. It would also mean burning bridges
with Penguin Books India which they are loath to do for reasons that are not limited
to India’s premiere publishing firm. Yet our Left-liberals need to be seen as
angry and outraged. So they viciously turn on “Hindu nationalists”, “fringe
fundamentalists”, “Hindutvawadis”, their fangs bared in hatred.

Some
years ago when a callow student of fine arts at MS University in Baroda ran
into trouble over two paintings, one allegedly depicting Jesus on the Cross and
the other Durga, there was a similar attempt to malign Hindus. Conveniently
glossed over was the fact that the protest was led not by Hindus but Christians
horrified by what they perceived to be a sacrilegious portrayal of Jesus.

We didn’t
hear a pipsqueak from our Left-liberals when the Church was asked to clear the
film ‘The Da Vinci Code’, whose screening was proscribed in several
Congress-ruled States. There are several instances of Left-liberals slyly
acquiescing to censorship by the Congress which has over the decades banned and
proscribed scores of books, journals and films.

Our
Left-liberals forget, ever so conveniently, that book-banning would not have
been an issue in this country but for Jawaharlal Nehru introducing the first
amendment to the Constitution. In India, the first amendment curbed freedom of
speech. In the US, the first amendment enshrined freedom of speech as
non-negotiable. If intolerance towards inconvenient views and obnoxious
opinions exists in this country, it stems from that original sin. Let us also
never forget that our Left-liberals are the most bigoted and intolerant of all.

Banning,
burning and pulping books are not welcome options. But neither is it welcome
that authors who wear a halo of ‘academic scholarship’ abuse their position and
perch to defame a community and its faith. And definitely the carping of the
spurious Left-liberals is unacceptable.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

SIr - I could not agree more with your article - thank you!! For too long, we have failed to realise that the real enemy of India is free speech and open debate. This must be ended immediately. On this point, I feel we must learn from our Muslim brothers - they have excellent phrases such as 'haram' and 'infidel' that we must adopt. People like Ms doniger must be made an example of. She must be stopped. I'm sure you agree, and as an intellectual, Sir - you can explain to the world why this is necessary to prevent the totalitarianism of left-liberals.

What worries me is that ms so-called doniger's book is being read more because of this circus. We must stop such books from appearing in the first place. The government should set up a board of censorship to read all books before publication. A list of phrases should be made that are not permitted. For example, Ms Doniger's suggested in her "book" that the sacred Ramayana was a work of fiction! Anyone who writes or speaks this phrase must be considered an enemy of Hinduism and dealt with accordingly! Only when there is fear can we ensure that slanderous opinions are not stated publicly. I look forward to more of your leadership on this issue!

Actually, I think all the people you call "Left-liberals" in this debate are very openly angry with Penguin for agreeing to ban a book.

I think Rana Dasgupta, himself surely one of your "Left-liberals", put it best today, while also seeking to understand the point of view of people like you who do not accept the elitist liberal concept of free speech:

"The boardrooms of companies with such world-conquering ambitions must surely be aware that not everyone sees the world like this. That the world is large and varied, and that the project will have its opponents. They must realise that there are millions of people out there who remain to be convinced of the importance of what they, international publishers, do. That they will receive regular attacks from all over the globe. They must have a strategy for dealing with these attacks, which are not random or surprising, but systematic, and inherent to their global publishing situation.

Dropping an important book when it becomes too hot, and before there seems even to be any real threat from its detractors, is, to say the least, a bizarre manifestation of this presumed strategy. A vast organisation so invested in the aura of all things written might be expected to throw itself with cosmic and Voltairean passion into such a landmark melee, so impressing its allies and enemies alike with its Idea of the Book. By backing out, it signals to the outside - whatever the internal realities - that its attachment to this Idea is quite anemic. It gives those detractors the monopoly on zeal, and endows their cause with a merit it never could have earned alone. The next time there is a similar attack on one of PRH's products, wherever it arises in the world, the organisation will approach the situation with its integrity already weakened.

The cause of the book - particularly the kind of books produced by global publishing companies - is not won. In fact, with this enlarged scale, it is entering a new infancy, where it must confront new forms of entrenched skepticism and resentment on every side. If, in these new territories - spatial and cultural - this kind of book is to be received with reverence and inquisitiveness, and not with calls for censorship, publishing houses must teach us again - and show us with their example - why books - their books - are valuable. And by "us" I mean this time not just the people who already believe it. I mean also those who "know" that those books are the source of everything wrong with the world."

Twitter Updates

Do you support India's vote against Israel at Unesco?

Featured post

Our fraudulent Left-liberals, who dominate the commentariat and academic institutions, poisoning impressionable minds, are out in full f...

Kolkata

Trincas at Park Street.

Take 1

Quick Comment

Take 2

Koko fooling around

Take 3

Quote of the Day

"The newspapers attacking me are not newspapers in the ordinary sense. They are engines of propaganda for the constantly changing policies, desires, personal vices, personal likes and dislikes of the two men. What are their methods? Their methods are direct falsehoods, misrepresentation, half-truths, the alteration of the speaker's meaning by publishing a sentence apart from the context...What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."